a cry.”

It is also related from the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—on the authority of al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah that he said:

“The funeral prayer is to be offered for a child.”

Those who followed the ḥadīth of Jābir said: the former report is general, whereas this one is explanatory; consequently, the general wording must be interpreted in light of that explanation. Thus, the ḥadīth of al-Mughīrah means that the funeral prayer is performed for a child only when he has cried aloud.

Those who sided with the report of al-Mughīrah argued: it is self-evident that the basis for the funeral prayer—and for one’s Islamic status—is life itself. When a child shows any movement, he is alive, and his ruling is the ruling of Muslims; every living Muslim who dies is prayed over. Therefore, they preferred the general wording to the particular on the grounds that it accords with legal analogy (qiyās).

Some scholars, however, maintained that no funeral prayer is to be offered for children at all. Abū Dāwūd narrated that “the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—did not perform the funeral prayer for his son Ibrāhīm, who was eight months old.” Yet another report states that “he did pray over him when he was seventy nights old.”

They also disagreed about the ruling for captive children. In the Basran transmission from Mālik it is held that a child taken from the enemy is not prayed over until he is old enough to understand Islam, whether or not he was captured with his parents. His status follows that of his parents unless the father embraces Islam; in that case the child follows the father, not the mother. Al-Shāfiʿī concurred, save that in his view the child follows whichever parent accepts Islam, not the father exclusively as Mālik maintained.

Abū Ḥanīfah ruled that the funeral prayer is offered for captive children and that their status follows that of their captors.

Al-Awzāʿī said: once the Muslims have come to possess them—that is, when they are sold in the market of war captives—the funeral prayer is performed for them. “Such,” he added, “is the established practice in the frontier regions and the legal opinion given there.”

All are agreed that if the children remain with their parents, and no Muslim has taken possession of them and neither parent has accepted Islam, their ruling remains that of their parents.

The underlying cause of their disagreement lies in whether the children of polytheists are destined for Paradise or for Hellfire. Some reports indicate that they are with their parents—that is, their judgment follows that of their parents—whereas his—peace and blessings be upon him—statement, “Every newborn is born upon the natural disposition,” is adduced as evidence that their ruling should be that of the believers.